Search the Collection
Stanley Wells Kemp
(1882-1945), Marine zoologist and oceanographerSitter in 1 portrait
Comments back to top
We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.
If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.
Bhaskar Saikia
10 March 2021, 10:04
Dr Stanley Wells Kemp had worked in India from 1910 to 1924 during which he had surveyed a large part of North East India, Odisha, Andaman Islands and Balochistan (now in Pakistan). He was the zoologist from the Indian Museum, Calcutta, who had accompanied the British Expeditionary Forces during the Anglo-Abor War of 1911-12, fought in Abor Hills (now known as Siang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, India) and made extensive collections of animal specimens, which had resulted in the discovery of a large number of new species including the only Onychophora (velvet worms) then known from Asia, Typhloperipatus williamsoni.
In 1922, Dr Kemp had led a survey team into the Siju Cave, Garo Hills, located in Meghalaya, Northeast India, which is still considered as a pioneering work by zoologists and bio-speleologists alike.
In 1924, after the death of Dr Nelson Annandale, who was the founding Director of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Dr Kemp assumed the directorship of ZSI for a short while, but soon resigned to become the Director of the Discovery Committee in the same year.
Although, across his various obituaries published highlighting his contribution to science, very little is written about his extensive travels and survey works across India that has significantly contributed to our knowledge about the animal diversity of India.